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wolsey

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Posts posted by wolsey

  1. I think it might have been voiced to thrill open-mouthed boy choristers at Choral festivals. So, it's worth keeping it as is just for that.

     

    You may be right. It certainly had that effect me as a chorister singing at an RSCM Cathedral Course there decades ago under Gerald Knight, with Roy Massey upstairs. I had heard Pedal Trombones, but this (to a twelve-year-old) was something else entirely...

  2. As to the ‘enormity’ of the Ophicleide at Truro: surely the answer would be to have it ‘tamed’, so that a 32’ could be provided that is in balance with it.

     

    Please: no tampering with the Truro Ophicleide.

  3. It ought to be recorded here that the Very Revd Michael Till, sometime Dean of Chapel, King's College, Cambridge, and formerly Dean of Winchester, gave a moving address at the funeral of his friend and colleague Sir Philip Ledger on 4 December, and having driven home to Sussex, he himself died.

  4. By coincidence, I was watching DVD1 from this set only last night. I found it thoroughly engaging and fascinating, and am pleased to have acquired a good understanding of the development of 19th century French organ building and its place in the social and cultural milieu. The disc also proved to be a visual and aural delight. Unless I have missed it though, my only regret is that there isn't a list of the pieces heard on DVD1. Gerard Brook's commentary scenes with the organ behind the High Altar immediately made me think, "Farnborough Abbey, surely!" I am glad that Douglas has confirmed my suspicion.

  5. Thanks for that suggestion, always nice to find a new French toccata I hadn't heard of before.

     

    Peter Wright recorded the pieces on the Lewis/Harrison at Southwark for Priory - Great European Organs No.35 - PRCD406. Although it's deleted, it's still available - for a price - through their archive service. If you're quick though, you'll find better deals on Amazon.

  6. Were both Francis Jackson and Martin Neary awarded their Lambeth D. Mus. at the same time and from the same Archbishop?

     

    Yes, they were: the photo was taken in October at Lambeth at the conferment of their degrees.

     

    As with many degrees, holders of a Lambeth degree are entitled to wear academic dress. However, the academic dress worn is not unique, original or exclusive. The tradition is to wear the academic dress of the institution from which the archbishop graduated and this has always been either Oxford or Cambridge. George Carey was not an Oxford or Cambridge graduate (he is a London graduate) but followed tradition and chose Oxford dress.

     

    Perhaps this is the reason they look different!!

     

    Indeed, but both the present Archbishop - and indeed his successor - graduated from Cambridge, and neither of the robes worn by Doctors Jackson and Neary appear to feature the distinguishing dark-cherry satin of a Cambridge MusD seen on this distinguished recipient in Cambridge this summer. With these gowns reportedly costing something approaching £1,000, it's perhaps no wonder suitable substitutes have to be used, and the matter of academic dress is observed in spirit, rather than in letter.

  7. He could, of course, get a Lambeth DMus - I think the present archbishop has used Oxford robes for this lately judging by the photos one has seen of folk like Francis Jackson and Martin Neary.

     

    Apologies for prolonging this digression on this thread, but the photo of Doctors Jackson and Neary in Lambeth degree robes ( http://asfchoir.word...mbeth/img_4522/ ) is misleading, as they are not identical. I imagine that the expense of these garments means that some discreet substitution has taken place.

  8. I am not certain whether this is possible any more but in the 'old days' a Cambridge graduate going to work at Oxford could 'incorporate' their degree so that they could wear an Oxford MA hood, for example, even though their degree was from Cambridge.

    Incorporation still occurs at both universities, and also Dublin; it's really a formality regarding their status within the university in which they happen to be working. Musicians who hold an MA of one of these three universities and have held a university or college post in another of the three - thus obtaining a 'second' MA by incorporation, include John Harper, Edward Higginbottom, Daniel Hyde, Bill Ives, David Lumsden, Simon Preston, Christopher Robinson and Bernard Rose.

     

    Hardly anybody progresses to the Cambridge MusD (or MusB) nowadays; the examinations for these higher degrees are not a walk-over by any means. The composer Derek Bourgeois is one of the very select people I know who holds a Cambridge MusD by examination.

  9. but I have seen well respected performers wearing what seem to be quite unsuitable ones, for example Michel Chapuis in his deck shoes.

     

    'Unsuitable' is a debatable term. There is anecdotal evidence of Jeanne Demessieux playing effortlessly in high-heeled shoes, and I remember Jeremy Filsell not putting a foot wrong in trainers.

  10. The score costs £20.99 from Allegro Music. If the end of Messiaen's Dieu Parmi Nous or Mulet's Tu es petra are within your scope, then this Toccata will be approachable. It's arguably slightly easier than the two works mentioned, as the figuration remains consistent throughout the piece.

  11. Quite irrelevant to the subject, it is actually quite rare to find organ-builders who are also very good organists, though Mark Venning, Fr Willis and Robert Noehren spring readily to mind.

     

    I beg to disagree. Kenneth Tickell; Bruce Fowkes; Christopher Batchelor; Andrew Scott; Geoffrey Coffin; Trevor Crowe spring to mind. Two of these are FRCOs; another an ARCO.

  12. ...I wasn't aware that Jimmy Taylor, (who ran things after the death of John Compton), was quite an accomplished organist, and served as Honorary Assistant at St Bride's, Fleet Street, until his death, duirng the time that Gordon Jacobs was there.

     

    You mean Gordon Reynolds.

  13. Sir Philip Ledger, sometime organist of Chelmsford Cathedral, Director of Music at King's College, Cambridge 1974-1982, and Principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 74.

  14. The two-manual organ at Ottery St Mary has a Great to Swell coupler...

     

    Generations of student church musicians must also remember the Great to Swell coupler on the Harrison organ which was situated in the RSCM's St Nicholas Chapel at Addington Palace. After a brief sojourn in Cleveland Lodge, Dorking, the instrument is now in St Alkmund's, Shrewsbury (NPOR: R01719).

     

    A Great Sub Octave coupler can now be found on the 1963 Walker organ at St John's RC Church, Islington, and also exists on the Downes-designed Walker at the London Oratory. The Downes/Harrison at Croydon's Fairfield Concert Hall has a Great Flues Sub Octave coupler.

  15. Those on Facebook should request to join the 'Carlo Curley Memoriam Group' for a scan of the order of the service and other contributions. By all accounts, Carlo was given a splendid send-off in a packed abbey.

     

    Music details are below. The service was led by the Vicar of Pershore, the Rev Kenneth Crawford, who also gave the address. Tributes were given by Nelson Barden and Paul Vaughan. Lessons were read by Selwyn Jones and the Rev Paul Andrew. Prayers were led by Rev Canon Timothy Lipscomb, Vicar of Preston. The interment of ashes took place in the Abbey's Memorial Garden immediately after the service in the church.

     

    Played before the service by Keith Hearnshaw

    Prelude & Fugue in A minor BWV 543 (J S Bach)

    Chorale Prelude on ‘Eventide’ (Parry)

    Nimrod (Elgar)

     

    Hymn: O praise ye the Lord (Organist, Colin Walsh)

     

    I hear the welcome voice

    Cannock Chase Orpheus Male Voice Choir

    Alan Jones, director; Colin Walsh, organist

     

    How lovely are thy dwellings (Brahms)

    Choir: Voces Assumptionis

    Alex Crawford, director; Colin Walsh, organist

     

    Hymn: Abide with me (Organist, Keith Hearnshaw)

     

    Interlude: Sarabande from Partita in A minor BWV 1013 (J S Bach)

    Nicholas Daniel - oboe

     

    In Paradisum from Requiem (Duruflé)

    Choir: Voces Assumptionis

    Alex Crawford, director; Colin Walsh, organist

     

    Hymn: The day thou gavest (Organist, Michael Pegg)

     

    Hymn: Mine eyes have seen (Organist, Colin Walsh)

    Prelude & Fugue in G BWV 541 (J S Bsch)

     

    INTERMENT

     

    Ar Hyd y Nos (Boulton)

    Cannock Chase Orpheus Male Voice Choir

     

    The Lord’s Prayer (Duruflé)

    Choir: Voces Assumptionis

  16. The track comes from a CD (Signum Classics) released in 2006 which I have. I also recall hearing Simon Preston perform this (and other pieces on the CD) in a recital at the Royal Albert Hall. Its appearance on YouTube is therefore questionable. The CD notes state that work was originally conceived for organ and orchestra, and first performed by Simon Preston and the Calgary Philharmonic in 1998, so there's a possibility that the solo organ version has not been published.

  17. I'm a latecomer to this thread, but rather despondent to hear that my old prep school has bitten the dust. [...] How is the choral foundation managing now? Where are the choristers being educated?

     

    Sadly, the person who was well placed to provide the answers has left this forum.

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